13 October 2006

The Costs of Climate Change

- It will cost the global economy £10.8 trillion a year by the end of the century.- The Thames Barrier might not be able to cope- A 4C rise in temperature would mean much hotter summers, droughts, a doubling of the number of people at risk of coastal flooding to 1.8 million and the need for a cooling system on the London Underground.

The Friends of the Earth report was compiled by economists at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University in Massachusetts in the US. Institute director Frank Ackerman said:

"The climate system has enormous momentum, as does the economic system that emits so much carbon dioxide. Like a supertanker, which has to turn off its engines 25km before it comes to a stop, we have to start turning off greenhouse gas emissions now in order to avoid catastrophe in decades to come."

To turn around the "supertanker", all wards in all city councils need to make efforts to reduce our energy use and reduce our carbon emissions.

If we have a library to be built in Whoberley, the design has to keep the supertanker in mind. If we have a PFI contract for food catering in primary schools, we need to keep carbon emissions (long-distance food transport versus local organic sourcing of food) in mind.

If the idea of Coventry congestion charging is floated, we don't need the council's leader, Ken Taylor, saying that if people oppose it, he won't bring it in. We need a new kind of leadership in Coventry.